Idiot Male #1: I earn six figures a year.
Idiot Male #2: Yeah? Well my wife is a supermodel.
Idiot Male #1: Big deal, I drive a Ferrari!
Idiot Male #2: I could bench press your Ferrari!

In today’s Internet Marketing world, it’s no longer just a matter of having the longest *cough* sales letter, the flashiest graphics or even a video! No, in order to convert that list to profit, you need to show them you have the biggest… bonus! (Yeah I know where your mind was going…)

Can you offer a complimentary product or perhaps training on the actual product you’re pushing? What about some interviews with leaders in the field this product covers? What can you possibly offer me that will not only “one-up” your competition, but entice me enough to clear my cookies and purchase through your link instead?

Personally, I like seeing the bonuses offered. Why? Because it gives me a clear indication of a large commission and as such, a large price tag. Or worse, ten up-sell / back end offers. I’ve yet to see very many bonus packages being offered for a $27 ebook…

I haven’t decided what I dislike more, finding a product I really like only to be set back by the high cost, or getting it at a price I can afford and then wrestling through a gazillion  ‘one time offer’ pages that you see three times in a row. Some people really need to be re-educated on the meaning of “one time”. And not only do you see them three times at different prices, they’re always so dramatic!

You know how they go!

Thanks for your purchase! But wait!! DON’T CLOSE THIS PAGE or your lungs will stop functioning from shock that you missed this absolutely, super fantastic, once in a life time, you’ll never see it again deal!

*Scroll to the bottom and clicks not interested*

Oh my god, you clicked no?! You must be INSANE! Well, that absolutely, super fantastic, once in a life time, you’ll never see it again deal is being offered to you one more time, only at a lower price! THIS time however, you won’t see it again!! I promise…

*Scroll to the bottom and clicks not interested*

Seriously? You didn’t like that price? Ok, what about for 99c? Would you take it for 99c?

*clicks no*

Hrm… you’re a tough one. Ok, what about this deal? Nothing to do with the original product but I’m sure you’re harbouring more money on that credit card somewhere…

*clicks no*

Ok, fine. You win. Just click seven more times, turn around three times, tap yourself on the forehead, jump on one foot fifty-eight times, drink three glasses of water backwards and upside down… by the time you’re done, I’ll have found your download link. Sound good?

Yes I realise that may be a tad over dramatised, but you get my point.

Just as the after sales messages can be over the top, so too can the “check out my bonus” emails. Never usually quite as bad, but when it is a product dishing out a nice commission, you just have to serve up just as juicy a bonus package to ensure you get all the buyers.

On Tuesday the 12th, the emails literally poured in for the Magic Bullet System. A training course and software system for making money with CPA offers which will set you back a hefty $2997… that is, if you got in. The doors were slammed shut at 9pm Easter time which marked the end of the 500 copies made available. At just under three grand a pop, that’s a nice $1,498,500 in sales. Yikes! And that’s if they stuck to their 500 seat limit, goodness knows I’ve seen others use the tactic of limited spots only to sell more.

You’ll also notice I said sales and not profit. That’s because there must have been some really sweet commissions going out to affiliates.

Example one: Blitzian’s $1000 cash back if you purchase through his link as offered on the Warrior Forums. A great saving for the buyer, taking the $2997 price down to only $1997. But of course we know no one is silly enough to give out their entire commission just to make sales… or at least we hope no one is, so we can guess that it’s higher than that.

A decent commission means one main thing: nearly all of the big guns are going to jump on its promotion and my inbox can so attest to that!

I had already looked at the Magic Bullet System when I got the first couple of emails, however I’m not in the right place to consider learning a new money making method right now, so decided it wasn’t for me. However, when I got out of bed on launch day and saw that every second email was trying to grab my attention about it, I took another look. (Actually, I had kinda forgotten what it was so popped back in to take a reminder look…pregnancy brain is kicking in early this time!)

With the “oh that’s right” moment hitting as I saw the videos again, I started deleting all the emails related to the Magic Bullet System. As I opened each one to check it was in fact about this launch or not something else, I was noticing a theme. Bonus this, bonus that, have you seen my bonus, check out my bonus, can I show you my bonus. It was enough to make a girl blush!

Very rarely will I purchase through someone just because of any bonuses they can offer me, in fact, most times I clear all my cookies once I have the sales page address and make sure my full purchase price goes to the creator. Only if someone I really like happens to be promoting it will I bother to make sure they get my commission… and only if they brought it to my attention. I’m fickle like that.

Or more to the point I’m so over the hyped up sales letters, pushy emails and “you must read this now / go now / buy now” car salesmen like attitudes a lot of affiliates develop that I just don’t really want to see them make any extra money off me. And yes I realise that’s the equivalent of a millionaire losing a $2 coin down the back of the couch.

But keep the bonus offers coming, it’s always good to see just how much extras people will throw at you to get you to buy, and especially the value they place on them. I think Chris Carpenter comes in the winner of this round offering $15,032 worth of bonuses. Of course he’d be the last person I’d buy from even if he was offering me a Ferrari so it doesn’t really make much of a difference.

What is the biggest or more outrageous bonus you’ve seen offered by an affiliate?

The 7 Figure Catch?

My inbox has been drowning under all the “Mike is leaving the “guru” business and giving away his 7 Figure Code course for FREE” (insert desired number of exclamation marks here) emails this past week. For something that was being given away ‘free’, there were an awful lot of people pushing their links – some even offering bonuses such as giving you $10 just for picking it up. What does that tell you? There’s a catch in there somewhere that will make these affiliates money, and they want me to click their link to ensure they get their sale.

Some were open enough to share this fact, such as Matt Garrett:

Oh, I’ll also be throwing in some bonuses, simply because if you do decide to take one of the upgrade options I’ll get a commission on it, so it only seems fair I give you something extra in return.

I respect the honesty they share and to be honest myself, I would be more likely to make sure one of them got my sale commission if I was to purchase what ever was being offered. Of course, we already know nothing is really for free except a kick up the ass, and for this giveaway, you are asked to pay the postage and handling. Fair enough really, no one is going to lose money by covering the cost to post out the advertised 10,000 copies. All of the emails that were sent to me explained this factor, I have no problem with that.

However, this brings in the first problem: The cost of shipping. I will admit to never having watched any of the pre-launch videos because I wasn’t interested in getting the 7 Figure Code. This has nothing to do with the product itself, how good it is or isn’t, I’m just not ready to take on any new items (let alone big courses) at the moment until I get my currect collection of ebooks, reports and other items sorted. Of course now, after reading a lot of comments from unhappy people, I’m wishing I had paid a little more attention. It seems the cost of shipping is one of the major issues.

Apparently the original amount for shipping was meant to be between $7 to $12 depending on where you lived. Unfortunately after searching through my 47 recent emails on this launch, no where can I see a listed shipping cost, however there are quite a few comments on the 7 Fiigure Code Blog stating that amount. Regardless if that price was stated previously or not, for me to be shipped the 80 page printed and spiral bound copy of The 7 Figure Secrets is $23.99. (This is the secrets, not the code. This is not the price to ship the DVD’s)

That’s a fairly high price for what essentially, is just some paper. No idea how the postal system in the US works, but in Australia we have what we call ‘tough bags’ which are basically thick paper (bordering on cardboard) envelopes. These are used to protect items a little better, but at relatively cheap cost. For something like an 80 page notebook, it would cost me around $2 to post. At the worst, maybe around $5. Big difference there.

The price of the shipping however is not the BIG problem, it’s the fact that people feel lied to.

Lie #1 – You get the Physical DVD’s

A lot of the emails that went out contained statements such as:

• “FYI – this course is the videos of a $5,000 workshop so you’re getting the same content as the people that paid $5,000.”  (Shawn Casey)
• “Mike Filsaime is going to be giving away his 7FigureCode 16 DVD course for free tomorrow, for those quick enough to grab a copy.” (Matt Garrett)
• “Melani, it’s open, get your 16 DVD’s for Free!” (Email title) (Matt Garrett)
• “Mike says he is giving away 10,000 copies on Dec 15th so make sure to register and mark down that date.  The 7 Figure Code is 16 DVD’s of the best selling home study course…” (Frank Salinas)
• “The 17 DVD’s are of a seminar that Mike held…” (JT Martin)
• “Now, Mike is going to let you have that set of DVDs for free – you just pay the shipping.” (Doug Champigny)
• “If you cover shipping and handling then you’ll get 16 DVDS of content from a $1297.00 course for free.” (Jeff Johnson)

However that’s not really the case. And if you listen real closely to the video shown on The 7 Figure Code’s main page, you will hear Mike state that the information will in fact be available via streaming video. Mike also sent out an email (titled “The Catch? There really is none… (explanation inside)” if you are subscribed to one of his lists) stating something similar.

Granted a lot of people can’t make use of the streaming video function – I would be one of them. This would take me forever to watch as we aren’t blessed with an unlimited download capacity and watching them would pretty much eat up our entire months quota. If, like me, the streaming video option is not an option at all, you can get the DVD’s shipped to you… for the additional cost of $97. And this is where people feel lied to.

There are a lot of unhappy campers out there that were led to believe they were getting the physical DVD’s for free, and instead, are faced with a $97 price tag when it all goes live. What’s worse, is that they feel instead of being a miscommunication, it was a deliberate ploy to get them all hyped up and excited before what is being labeled “a bait and switch” was pulled.

Was it a lie? No. Was it misleading wording by some affiliates? Unfortunately yes.

Who emailed it right?

• “He’ll give you instant online access to the 7 Figure Code home study course (the content from all the original DVDs) and he’ll ship you a copy of 7 Figure Secrets, the
  “condensed version” of the course (an 84-page ebook that slims down over 20 hours of video)” (Michael Rasmussen)

Lie #2 – No tricks, no gimmicks and no forced continuity

This is where it get’s a bit tricky. Technically there is no “forced” continuity, if you pay close attention. When you click on the add to cart button, you see the following page:

“Yes Please send me the printed and spiral bound edition of “The 7 Figure Secrets.” I can’t wait to get my hands on this product…” yadda yadda yadda. Now, the first issue crops up with the line “I know it is a $297 value and I get it 100% free today“. Why? Because nearly every single email and publicity note about this release highlights the $1297 price tag. So when people read that they are only getting something worth $297, they get confused. Very confused.

Right there, people feel tricked.

As you scroll down the page, you see big red tick marks with the words “YES” sign me up for the Instant Affiliate Website and MarketingDotCom Monthly Magazine for a 30 Day free trial before charging me $19.95 a month. And “YES” I also want the 7 Figure Zone Elite Community Membership free trial which will end up costing me a further $19.95 a month after 14 days. Again, more confusion…

But if you look closely to the top right hand corner of each offer, you will see that you can remove them from your cart.

What is “forced continuity”?

… it’s when in order to get the “free offer” you get automatically signed up to some sort of ongoing payment plan usually (but not always) after a “trial period”. - as stated in the email sent out by Matt Garrett titled “When is a “freebie” not a freebie..?”

To me, the above looks pretty automatic.

I find this a very tricky way to go about it, because people’s brains will automatically jump to the “What the HELL??” side of the fence due to the confusion caused. They won’t automatically think “Well hrm, I was told I don’t have to take these offers, so I must be able to remove them somehow”. Most will look to the red tick wanting to know how to un-tick it, and then when they can’t, they get upset. This is quite clear when you read the many, many comments posted on the official 7 Figure Code blog. *

Remember, a lot of the emails went out with details that there was no forced continuity, yet here is the order page which what appears to be forced continuity.

Again, people feel tricked.

Is there forced continuity? No. Is this a really bad way to get people to consider accepting your offers? In my opinion, yes.

The Result?

Unfortunately, with the high shipping and handling cost, the miscommunication that left people feeling they were being lied to about what was actually being sent out, and the automatic acceptance of the membership options which the user has to manually remove, it’s left a very sour taste in a lot of people’s mouths. Just the same, there are thousands out there who have picked themselves up a copy – be it with or without the extras. Whether they know what they’re going to get charged shortly or not I can’t say…

As a few commenters mentioned in reply to the official blog post that if it had originally been advertised as a $97 special to get all the DVD’s with the option to access a free version via streaming video, there would be less upset caused. However, there most likely would have been a lot less interest…

*Update* It’s no surprise that by the time I had finished putting this together, let it sit to come back and proof read, all the negative comments from the official blog post are gone. Deleted. That’s only about 5 hours. Annoyingly, I actually had the page open until late this afternoon and only closed it when I felt I was done writing up what I wanted to. Really wish I had of captured screenshots of all the negativity… there certainly was a lot.

Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings here, as well as spread the word for other’s to do the same. I don’t delete things just because they aren’t kissing my … well, you get the idea.

Further Reading

• The Seven Figure Code Hype, by Matthew Bredel